Premier girls’ teams to battle it out for the Mackenzie Cup
One of South Africa’s premier girls’ water polo tournaments, the Mackenzie Cup, will see 16 top teams battle it out for supremacy and bragging rights in Cape Town from Friday.
The annual tournament, hosted by Reddam House Constantia, features u19 matches taking place at the school’s Indoor Aquatic Centre, while the action in the u13 section of the tournament goes down in the outdoor pool.
The event kicks off on Friday morning and concludes with the final on Sunday, 15 September, at 14:30.
Catch it LIVE on SuperSport Schools.
This year’s tournament promises to captivate water polo enthusiasts in and around the Mother City, and a new format will add extra spice to the mix.
With another two teams on board, instead of the traditional two pools of seven teams each, the organisers, led by Nick Tinkler, have changed things around, creating four groups of four teams, with a round-robin stage, quarterfinals, and the finale.
The three-day event will pit some of the best water polo-playing schools in the country against each other.
The hosts, Reddam, are in Group A and will face Gqeberha’s Pearson High School, Rhenish Girls’ High, and Somerset College, who, along with Group C’s Fish Hoek, are the new additions to the tournament.
Reddam will be hoping to emulate the form that took them to a third-place finish at the Old Petrian’s Water Polo Tournament in Johannesburg earlier this year.
They will, however, have to do it without three influential, outstanding players, Hannah Banks, Emma Catto, and Roxanne Uys, who are all on national duty at the World Championships in China.
Group B is an exciting one and will feature three Cape sides – Wynberg Girls’ High, Springfield Convent School, and a Herschel Invitation team – in action. They’ll be up against the only school from KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Girls’ College (DGC), who are also the defending champions.
DGC, after winning the title in 2023, will, undoubtedly, be among the favorites to win the event. Earlier this year, they claimed gold at the National Aquatics Festival in Durban and they’re a dangerous outfit when firing on all cylinders.
Group C will be contested by Herschel, Clarendon High School for Girls, Rustenburg Girls’ High, and Fish Hoek.
Herschel won the Old Petrian’s Water Polo Tournament earlier this year and they will be brimming with confidence, although, like Reddam, they will also be without three star players who are in the SA u18 team – Amy van Breda, Alexa de Villiers, and Emily van Heerden. Herschel won the tournament back in 2022, and they’ll be keen to get their hands on the trophy once again.
Group D, meanwhile, features a couple of challengers from the Eastern Cape in Collegiate Girls’ High, and DSG Makhanda.
They’ll face a Reddam House Invitational side and St Cyprian’s, who are not to be underestimated.
The group’s action gets underway with an Eastern Cape derby when DSG takes on Collegiate at 09:00.
FIXTURES
Friday, 13 September
Group A
07:00 – Pearson High vs Rhenish; 09:40 – Somerset College vs Reddam House; 12:20 – Pearson High vs Reddam House; 15:00 – Somerset College vs Rhenish; 17:40 – Pearson vs Somerset College; 19: 40 – Reddam House vs Rhenish.
Group B
07:40 – Durban Girls College vs Herschel Invitational; 10:20- Wynberg Girls’ vs Springfield Convent School; 13:00 –Springfield Convent School vs Durban Girls School; 15:40 – Herschel Invitational vs Wynberg Girls’; 18:20 – Durban Girls College vs Wynberg Girls.
Group C
08:20 – Fish Hoek vs Clarendon; 11:00 – Herschel vs Rustenburg Girls; 13:40 – Fish Hoek vs Rustenburg Girls; 16:20 – Hershel vs Clarendon; 19:00 – Herschel vs Fish Hoek.
Group D
09:00 – DSG Makhanda vs Collegiate; 11:40 – Reddam Invitational vs St Cyprians; 14:20 – DSG Makhanda vs St Cyprians; 17:00 – Reddam Invitational vs Collegiate.
Saturday, 14 September
Group B
07:40 – Springfield Convent vs Herschel Invitational.
Group C
08:20 – Rustenburg vs Clarendon.
Group D
07:00 – DSG Makhanda vs Reddam House Invitational; 09:00- Collegiate vs. St Cyprians.
Click HERE for the round-robin stages.
